The Flyers destroyed the Penguins tonight by the score of 8-2. Both Joffrey Lupul and R.J Umberger were in competition with one another to see who could get the most points. Each got a hat trick on the night for the first time since 1985 that the Flyers have had two hat tricks in one game. Lupul also had six points on the night (3-3), while Umberger had only a pathetic five (3-2).

Things were looking alright after the first. Both teams went into the second period tied at two thanks to a power play goal from Whitney and a quick notch from Sykora. but then it all went to hell with six unanswered goals from the Flyers. Sabourin was pulled after the second period, having given up five goals on twenty-five shots. Thus marked the first NHL appearance from Ty Conklin, recently promoted from the Wilkes-Barre squad.

Aside from a sprawling save to prevent the ninth goal of the game, Conklin didn't exactly save the day or make it look any prettier. Conklin allowed three goals on fifteen shots before the much anticipated final horn.

At least the game remained entertaining though. A nice solid rivaly was fueled by 156 penalty minutes distributed between the two, 98 of which belonged to the Pens.

As predicted, Jason Smith didn't go more than a minute into the game before dropping his gloves with Ryan Malone. In the last meeting between the two teams back in November, Malone was ejected when fighting with Smith in the final minute of the third after a missed slashing call on Crosby. Tonight Malone seemed to have the upper hand in the fight, delivering some solid rights to Smiths face. The fight came to its end when Smith more or less dove on top of Malone to end the suffering.

Even Sidney Crosby almost got into a fight with Flyers goaltender Marty Biron when Crosby, accidental or not, tripped up Biron on a play behind the net. Neither player was penalized, but Biron was edging on Crosby to come back to the crease.

Ben Eager and Gary Roberts also tied up after Eager delivered an elbow to Georges Laraque's head that went unnoticed by the refs. Laraque, of course, was penalized for retaliation. Roberts dominated Eager with left after left to the face. Both were sent to the box, where Laraque and Eager continued to exchange some choice words. Neither would throw the gloves later in the game.

Ryan Whitney fought tonight, just as he did in the Pens' last visit to Philly. Tonight his foe of choice was Jeff Carter. Carter would later be seen in the penalty box with blood dripping from a cut above his nose before being sent off to the dressing room.

Colby Armstrong and Scott Hartnell went at it, although it was more of a scuff than a fight. Armstrong suffered self-inflicted facial lacerations earlier in the night when he missed a hit and went flying into the boards face first. To his defense, falling during the fight prevented further injury. Both players were ejected from the game.

Georges Laraque received a game misconduct for running into Marty Biron on what looked like an obvious attempt to take the goalie out. Shortly after, Evgeni Malkin would also get a game misconduct for fighting with the Flyers' Tolpeko.

The final game misconduct came to Jarkko Ruutu with one minute remaining in the game, as the Penguins more or less had only a dozen players or so on the bench. Therrien opted to sit Crosby in prevention of any head hunting that would ensue should he step back on the ice.

All in all, 10 combined goals on the game, 34 called penalties, 98 penalty minutes for the Penguins, 58 penalty minutes for the Flyers, five fights, eight ejections...and a partridge in a pair tree.

If one good thing can come from this game it's the Penguins ability to focus on using this game as a team building exercise. After all, after the first fight, all of the other ones came from retaliation and standing up for one another.

In the end the Penguins bullied the bullies, winning practically every fight on the game. Winning the game itself; well, not exactly.

December 12, 2007 12:06 AM ET
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We must have watched different games. The Flyers simply owned the Pens on this night. As for winning all the fights. Ahem....whatever. The Pens totally lost their composure and this was far from team building. Crosby sitting was also questionable. head hunting? I don't think so. Perhaps trying to protect Syd from running his mouth and getting himself in trouble. In any event pretty classless game from the Pens. They are better than that.

December 12, 2007 12:27 AM ET
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Read this site constantly this is such crap that it has elicited my first post. Did you even watch the game? Had the Flyers behaved like the Pens there would be 3 suspensions.Memo to cindy: You will have to man up.

December 12, 2007 12:35 AM ET
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There was absolutely nothing wrong with the Eager hit on Laraque. Absolutely pathetic how the announcer complained about it for about 15 minutes after it actually happened. Eager came up UNDER Laraques arm and with his arms drove lraques own arm into his own head. There was nothing wrong with the hit at all and thats why it wasn't called. Flyers absolutely dominated the Penguins and the VS channel is in love with Crosby and as a result you had a bunch of idiots announcing the game constantly backing the Penguins on EVERYTHING. Pathetic. Thank god the Flyers didn't just win, they absolutely dominated the Penguins.

December 12, 2007 12:40 AM ET
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Pretty sure Carter owned the punk he fought, Hartnell too. As for Eager, well thats like when you turn 18, arm wrestle your dad and he wins, the old fart went out while you felt it was a joke match. If you dont believe me watch any one of eagers previous fights. As far as cindy goes well we all saw what he pulled on Biron and he couldnt even cowboy up enough to go back and drop em with a guy thats under gear twice as heavy as his. As far as Smith goes I didnt see that one but if you say Malone won well then all the power too him. Fact of the Matter is Lupul and Umberger OWNED Crosby and Malkin 11pts to 3pts. 8-2, 3-0 LETS GO FLYERS

December 12, 2007 12:45 AM ET
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"There was absolutely nothing wrong with the Eager hit on Laraque"At any time Pre lock out from 1917-2004 that wouldnt have even been an issue, Mark Messier (yeah THE Mark Messier) Used to knock people right out with Elbows. Eager didnt even get Laraque with his elbow he hit him with his shoulder and popped his elbow up afterwards. But this is the New diet pepsi presentys little baby whiner NHL not the one we loved in the 60's 70's and 80's

December 12, 2007 1:00 AM ET
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Funny, looked to me like Jeff Carter kicked Ryan Whitney's ass. Eager did lose his fight, but he always loses his fight. Malone and Smith was a draw, but Malone did much better after Smith tuned him like a guitar in the last game. Nice to see Michelle Therrien cry like a little girl after the game...

December 12, 2007 1:41 AM ET
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MikeHock, it's written in the perspective of a Pens fan. If you'd prefer it be a "Flyers rule" blog, then you and the other Flyers fans can probably put something together I'm sure.

December 12, 2007 1:45 AM ET
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And to all Flyers fans, it amuses me that you're upset I said they lost most of the fights. For a team that has been the victim of suspensions and gotten a bad wrap for fighting, wouldn't winning a fight be the least of your concerns? See you all again in January.

December 12, 2007 1:52 AM ET
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after hearing that the pens coach was mad that the flyers had their top PP guys on the ice late in the game. yes i see his point. but he must have a really short memory. the flyers, and john stevens are coming off a season where the pens wiped the ice with them 8 times. i know, with the pens/flyers rivalry now back in full swing that losing all 8 last season did not sit well with the flyers. i have a feeling that if they could have scored 10 tonight they would have taken it. the flyers seem to play the pens with a little more energy this season than most other teams. that is not a good thing for the flyers overall because it shows serious inconsistency, but it seems the flyers have large chip of their shoulder when they play the pens this season. cant wait to see more flyers/pens games this season.

December 12, 2007 1:54 AM ET
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and one more quick thing. i am a flyers fans, but cote better be glad he was benched tonight. he would have been dumb enough to challenge laraques. big goerges would have given riley 4 black eyes, and cote only has 2 eyes. there is nobody on the philly roster that can hang with him. that may hurt the flyers down the road.

December 12, 2007 1:57 AM ET
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I don't think it was classless to have the top PP guys out there. I just think that helps with a good cross-state rivalry. Of course, if it were the other way around, I'm pretty confident Flyers fans would be crying to high heaven at how classless it was.

December 12, 2007 2:03 AM ET
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no problem. i just call it as i see it. i never felt it necessary to waste my money on a pair of flyers colored glasses. i love the team to death, but am not afraid to say when my team is wrong.

December 12, 2007 8:11 AM ET
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FrankD- I got no problem with your blog. I thought it was decent, yet biased like any other blog in world. Try not to let the other Philly fans get under your skin. I think that the (at least a large part) reason you are getting a lot of "love" from flyerdom is b/c of all of the smack talk (from Pens fans) and smackdowns (from the team) that were dished out last year. Anyway, I was really hoping the Eager and Big George would have tried to go after each other in the penalty box. That would have been awesome even though Laraque would have killed him. Was Eddie O the one of the commentators?

December 12, 2007 8:28 AM ET
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the only thing i would have to say about the roberts / eager fight - eager was at a huge disadvantage due to roberts not having his fight strap secured. Thats why roberts was done after his fight. i would like to see them go toe to toe when roberts didnt have that advantage over him (not to say that eager would win, just it would be a better fight overall)

December 12, 2007 8:37 AM ET
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haha a sea of general ignorance....at least we have fans that go to the games and care about the team. you shoulda been moved to kc. and the bad rap isnt for fighting, its for cheap shots.

December 12, 2007 12:22 PM ET
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swartz - Yes, Eddie O was a commentator. Of course, that is why there would be some bias from the commentators as well. He was the one, particularly, who was calling what he presumed to be uncalled penalties.

December 12, 2007 12:24 PM ET
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Lyrics Ninja - I was REALLY anticipating a fight between Laraque and Eager. But I think even Georges was thinking "Man, I could just destroy this kid." So Roberts, who apparantly has no regard for age, stepped up and beat the crap out of him. The way I see it, if Crosby is old enough to get high-sticked and slashed from players around the league, then Eager can take a beat down from just the same.

December 12, 2007 12:26 PM ET
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Flyershockey - Coulda, woulda, shoulda. Similar to your city's success with championships, you just have to stop living in the past. I look forward to another 30 years of Flyers vs Penguins games and more Pens championships on top of that.

December 12, 2007 12:30 PM ET
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NastyFlyer - He was using his first PP line till the end of the game, his second one just happened to be the one that converted. I think Therrien's general discontent came around the six-minute mark. Even as a Pens fan, I can see how the Flyers' number 1 PP line would be tired after working on 13 power plays.

December 12, 2007 3:54 PM ET
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You're completely oblivious - Roberts vs Eager was not a draw. Roberts clearly dominated his ass. And Malone definitely won the fight over Smith too. I'll agree some of the other ones were close to draws, but those two were definite highlights of the night in the win category.

December 12, 2007 8:03 PM ET
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Some Flyers fans need to take off the Orange colored glasses. Malone without a doubt won the fight against Smith. He landed 5 or 6 good shots to Smith's head. Roberts beat the tar out of Eager. C'mon, seriously.

December 13, 2007 7:59 AM ET
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MJL is correct. Eager got destroyed like he always does and I honesty don't think Smith actually tried but nonetheless he lost also. None of this really matters anyway, we won 8-2 and that is what is important. The fights really don't matter.